Stanford University administrators published a guide to “harmful language” that calls for the elimination of words including “man” and “American.”
The university created an index of forbidden words that it plans on eliminating from its websites and computer code, with a list of alternative terms to replace them with.
Stanford published in May what it calls its “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative,” (EHLI) a “multi-phase, multi-year project to address harmful language in IT at Stanford,” according to the guide revealed by The Wall Street Journal.
The attempted changes to the English language are part of a decades-long campaign by far-left groups to impose Marxist “critical theory” on the whole of society, resulting in the “woke” movement.
“EHLI is one of the actions prioritized in the Statement of Solidarity and Commitment to Action, which was published by the Stanford CIO Council (CIOC) and People of Color in Technology (POC-IT) affinity group in December 2020,” it said.
The goal of the EHLI project is to eliminate “many forms of harmful language,” such as “racist, violent, and biased (e.g., disability bias, ethnic bias, ethnic slurs, gender bias, implicit bias, sexual bias) language in Stanford websites and code.”
The university website said that the guide’s purpose was to educate people on the impact of words and that its “suggested alternatives” were in line with those used by “peer institutions and within the technology community.”
According to the university, EHLI is part of a “multi-phase” project compiled by Stanford’s IT leaders, which took “18 months of collaboration with stakeholder groups” to complete.
Attempts to Rewrite the English Language
The index listed forbidden words and preferred replacements under 10 “harmful language” sections: Ableist, Ageism, Colonialism, Culturally Appropriative, Gender-Based, Imprecise Language, Institutionalized Racism, Person-First, Violent, and Additional Considerations.
The preface of the index starts with a so-called trigger warning: “This website contains language that is offensive or harmful. Please engage with this website at your own pace.”
Students and staff are strongly discouraged from calling themselves “American” and are instead told to use the term “U.S. citizen,” because it would, according to the index, be an insult to people from the rest of the Americas.
The index notes that the Americas comprises 42 countries and that using the term “American,” refers only to citizens of the United States, which, according to the index, suggests that other countries in the Western Hemisphere have less merit.
The word “abort” is also on the banned list as the term may trigger concerns about abortion and it is therefore suggested that it be replaced with the words “cancel” or “end.”
“Child who has been trafficked,” is considered to be more appropriate than using “child prostitute” to avoid the victim being solely defined by just one characteristic.
Meanwhile, a number of succinct terms will be replaced with lengthy designations.
For example, “immigrant” would be replaced with the alternative, “person who has immigrated,” “prisoner” with “a person who is/was incarcerated,” and “homeless person” with “a person without housing.”
Students are also discouraged from mentioning that they plan to “master” their subjects, as the guide says that “historically, masters enslaved people.”
Regarding allegedly racially offensive terminology, old common phrases like “black hat,” “black mark” and “black sheep” are not to be used anymore, because of “negative connotations to the color black.”
The index insists that “pronouns” be used instead of “‘preferred’ pronouns” because “the word ‘preferred’ suggests that non-binary gender identity is a choice and a preference.”
Traditional descriptions like “freshman,” “fireman,” and “congresswoman” are out the door because of “gender binary language” reasons.
Language suggesting violence was also discouraged, including “beating a dead horse,” “pull the trigger,” “trigger warning,” and “killing two birds with one stone.”
Stanford Quietly Hides List After Public Criticism
After the index was publicized on Dec. 18, the backlash on social media led Stanford administrators to hide the list of words from the public, reported the Journal.
The Journal noted that Stanford lists 2,288 faculty members and 15,750 administrative staff in comparison to 16,937 students.
It is expected that the number of staff will likely balloon to enforce these EHLI standards, further raising the tuition and administrative costs.
From The Epoch Times
